POTENTIAL BUSINESS FOR POULTRY, PIGS AND THEIR PRODUCTS IN TIMOR-LESTE

Dr. Eduardo Aniceto Serro, MSc.

Department of Livestock Production, the Faculty of Agriculture, UNTL
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A paper presented at the Joint Conference between Victoria University, Melbourne and
the National University of Timor Lorosae (UNTL).
Future Directions for Food in Timor-Leste Improving Nutrition, Cuisine, Food Markets and
Rural Livelihoods. Dili, 11-12 July 2013.

Introduction
Timor-Leste has vast types of livestock though poultry and pigs are the most popular livestock
species in the country. They are kept by almost 73% of households in the nation and have
become part of the farming system throughout the territory (DNA, 2004; Serro, 2012).
Although they are raised on a small-scale, within a subsistence agricultural framework, they
serve a great function as biological assets for every family which could be used for household
consumption, cultural and religious ceremonies, serving to visitors, selling for cash for securing
the needs of households for food. Furthermore, chicken meat, pork and eggs are the most
consumed animal products in Timor-Leste compared to fish, beef and other livestock products
(AMSAT International, 2011). They are the most served dishes in restaurants and hotels in
urban towns in the country.

As Timor-Lestes economy and lifestyle is gradually improving positively and with increasing
demand on animal protein products, the demand for chickens and pigs products in the country
also commensurately expanded. In 2010 the country required about 4000 metric tonnes of
chicken meat and 200 metric tonnes of eggs (ACIAR, 2010; MAF, 2011; Serro, 2012) and the
demand figure will continue to increase. Recently, major parts of the demand have been
fulfilled through importation in the form of frozen broiler meat, frozen pork and other
processed products, including eggs while the remaininder is supplied from locally grown
poultry and pigs. Low productivity of local poultry and pigs and less diversity of their types
and processed products contributed to the dependency on importation. Although this offers
business opportunities, the practice is not conducive for sustainable development of a livestock
industry and not favourable for promoting sustainable businesses of poultry and pigs in Timor-
Leste. Diversification of poultry and pigs and their products in Timor-Leste have the potential
to generate job opportunities, improve livelihood, improve nutrition, improve diversity of
cuisines and enhance future business opportunity for Timorese people. This paper tries to

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present and analyse the current conditions of small-scale poultry and pig industries in Timor-
Leste and discuss some of the potential business of these livestock in Timor-Leste.

Diversity, productivity and its implication to business

In fulfilling the increasing demand for domestic consumption and widening of business
opportunity in the poultry and pig industries, a diversification of livestock kinds and its
products is critical. The poultry and pig varieties in Timor-Leste are not diverse in types or
processed products and less diverse in serving dishes. They are mostly dominated by local
genotype with poor performance compared to other states in Asia and the Pacific. In Indonesia
for instance poultry industry is growing faster with diverse poultry types (village chickens,
exotic chicken breeds (broiler and layers), other poultry industries such as ducks and quail
industries, poultry feed manufacturing, housing and equipment industries, popular cuisines
(grilled chicken, porridge chicken etc). In Australia, poultry and pigs industry is an advanced
biological industry which offers quality broiler and layers, quality pork production, including
other related vibrant business such as poultry and pig feed industries, poultry housing and
equipment enterprises. Australia also has diverse poultry and pig products such as chicken
breasts, drumsticks, wings, and other processed poultry products, in addition diverse cuts such
as pork bacon, hams and sausages are growing spectacularly. These references provide an
overview that poultry and pigs industries provide a multi-dimensional business opportunity at
many stages and many options. This gives an idea that poultry and pig sector in Timor-Leste
should be improved to promote business opportunities for the wellbeing of Timorese.

There are two dimension of potential business present within the current production scenario
of poultry and pigs in Timor-Leste. Firstly, while fast growing commercial breeds of poultry
and pigs and its products extends spectacularly in other states, the local poultry and pigs with
low productivity are still kept by most of the people in Timor-Leste while the demand for
chicken meat, pork and eggs is increasing. The lack of diversity of poultry and pig types and
their products is another dimension to consider. Village chickens and local pig genotypes are
the main types existing in the country, followed by ducks, pigeons and a medium scale layer
farm (Copland et al., 2003; MAF, 2005; AMSAT International, 2011; Serro, 2012). A local
hen can only produce 35-40 eggs per year and a household can only harvest few chickens per
season because of high mortality rate (Serro et al., 2012). Major piglets were lost due to
diseases and insufficient nutrition including extensive management approach. Consequently,
poultry and pigs products are not sufficient to fulfil national demand. Imported frozen broiler

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meat is famous throughout urban communities of Timor-Leste. Local poultry, eggs and local
pigs are only sold as live animals in a local market with a short supply chain operations, as
presented in Figure bellow.

Simple Supply Chain

Chickens Rearers

Market centres
Local/urban
(villages or
consumers
districts)

Collectors /
Middle men

Local/urban Major markets

consumers (Capital city)

Figure: Supply chain of live chickens in Timor-Leste.

Live chickens and pigs are normally collected by local traders (middle man) then traded
directly to buyers at niche markets and sometimes door to door selling is practiced.
Consequently no poultry abattoir exits in the country and most of the local pork meat is
slaughtered privately at household level and only consumed locally and not particularly served
in restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and in growing street businesses (sate chicken, roasted
chicken and pork), instead most of these enterprises used products that are imported. This
scenario expresses that there is an existing poultry and pigs business in the country; however
they are still less diverse in the stages and less intense. There is a need to diversify not only at
production level but also in supply chain level to provide business opportunity for many people.

Poultry and Pig Business Opportunity in Timor-Leste

As previously discussed that there are conditions that make the poultry and pigs industries a
future potential business in Timor-Leste. The average meat consumption per capita is still low
and demand will continue to increase. Where poultry and pigs only contribute to 5.2kg/cap/year
and 9.2kg/cap/year respectively in 2007 (ProCon.org, 2012) and 8.3kg/cap/year for chicken
meat, 4.8 kg/cap/year for eggs, 2.2 kg/cap/year for pork in 2010 (AMSAT International, 2011).

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There is a lack of commercial poultry and pig farms with diverse poultry types, a lack of exotic
pig farms, a lack of poultry and pork main products and processed products in the country.
With these phenomenon, there is a need to establish commercial poultry farms (broilers and
layers), intensive ducks, quail farms, introduce semi-intensive village chicken farm in rural
level and diversify of poultry and pork processing products in the country. Poultry and pigs
ration, shelter equipment, hatcheries for the multiplication of day old poultry including day-
old-chicks (DOC), day-old-ducks (DOD) is encouraged to develop. These will promote and
enhanced diversification of animal products and widen business opportunities for many people.

If the country requires a high demand for pork and pork products, the current practices will not
be effective to meet the demand of pork and its processing products. There is a need to increase
farm size of local pig growers. The government should invest seriously in this program to
stimulate business opportunity for the country. Commercial pig farm also needs to establish to
fulfil the demand of pork for further diversification of pork processing products. Exotic breeds
should be introduced, management of weaning piglets, fattening, health and marketing should
be improved to promote a productive industry.

Poultry and pigs rations is a lucrative business to develop. If poultry and pigs production
improve, there will be a need to establish poultry and pig feed manufacture with primary
function as main supply of main poultry and pigs ration to future poultry and pigs industry in
the country. Without this segment the development of small and large scale of poultry and pigs
industry in the country will not be profitable and sustainable as feed represent about 70-85%
of production cost of any poultry and pig farm (Haq and Akhtar, 2004; Ravindran, 2010), taken
to the account that imported poultry and pig feed is becoming expensive in international trade
in recent years (Lawrence et al., 2010). Therefore by locally-produce feedstuffs will be a great
business opportunity in the country not only benefit poultry and pigs farms but also all
segments of agriculture producers in Timor-Leste. In addition, the utilization of locally grown
and inexpensive feedstuffs should provide an economical and sustainable alternative to feed
importation.

To support the multiplication of day-old-chicks, there is a need to establish hatchery industries.

This is a vibrant enterprise in poultry industry, without this segment the industry will relay on
imported breeding production overseas which will raise production cost, risk of trans-border
diseases and risk during transportation. Poultry and pigs housing and equipment are another

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potential business to develop in the country. Recently only a small shop with limited
equipments was operating, however with the possible expansion of poultry and pig industry in
the country this business will become another lucrative business to run. Furthermore, chicken
and pig housing may required building materials which include wood, sands, cement etc. Thus
this will benefit other local business in building materials.

There is no poultry processing products existed in the country. There are few micro-scale
household enterprises that produce sausage or surico (local name for sausages that developed
from pork with variety of seasoning) but it still operating according to demand and the quality
still bellow compared to the imported sausage. A major program is needed to promote and
invest in the current practice of pork meat processing. Foreign and private investors are needed
to stimulate pork business in Timor-Leste. In addition, there is no official poultry and pig
slaughterhouse operating in the country, mostly come from house managed and private
slaughterhouse. This is another business chain in poultry and pig industry that needed to
promote in the near future to diversify business in poultry and pigs in Timor-Leste.

Conclusion
The diversification and intensification strategies in poultry and pigs industry in Timor-Leste is
challenging because it requires a lot of efforts but with reasonable strategic and feasible plan,
the availability of poultry and pig products and its processing products in the markets at an
affordable price for everyone is achievable. There are varieties of poultry and pigs business
that are practicable to promote in the country with a sustainable environment. Securable of
quality poultry and pig products to everyone in this country will improve nutrient intake, and
will lead to reduction of malnourish children and eradicate stunting children in the territory.
Diversification of poultry and pigs products will also stimulate business growth as well as
stimulate farmers to improve their land productivity which will further improve livelihood of
rural and urban people of Timor-Leste.

References
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Operational Plan. Commonwealth of Australia, pp 136.

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